Friday, 5 September 2008

I'm still here

Sheesh, I've been such a bad blogger lately. But I am still here, honest...

I had a good time seeing my Gran in Shetland, where I spotted a goodly number of Shetland Bumblebees:

For all you Latin fans out there, this subspecies is Bombus muscorum agricolae (I think).

And when I got home, I was even more excited to find that my Bumblegarden had become populated with not one, but two happy little buzzers:

Buzz

Buzz 2

And here's a group shot, to prove that the above pics are not just two different angles on the same bee:

Buzz (on the left) and Buzz 2 (on the right)

(Latin-fans: the flavour of these guys is either Bombus terrestris or Bombus lucorum... I can't tell the difference with absolute confidence... and I believe the best way to do so involves dissection... which probably isn't much fun for the bumbles...).

Sadly, they shuffled off their little bumbly mortal coils about a week ago - as bumbles tend to at this time of year - so the garden is now very empty again. *Sigh*. Roll on next Spring...

The flip side is that I might shut up about bumbles now for a while - so it's safe to some back again soon in the hope I'll have posted something a bit different :o)

Which is what I want to finish up with actually. Is anyone else disconcerted by this picture of our oven clock, spotted at midnight a few weeks ago:

There you are! The bumblers have come back with you! They're looking rather stripy and handsome in those pics. We've had a species round these 'ere parts that is really quite big with an orange bottom. Do you know what it might be?

Perhaps that clock is still having a little Y2K-style wobble and needs a bit of digital counselling.

Hurrah, you're back! And about time too .... who do you think you are with this long hiatus - Bush and Troy?? (sorry for the local reference there) (and even more sorry if you don't listen to GWR ...)

Not being a fan of Latin myself - in fact the only thing I remember from school days is "Mons est eratus" (sp?) which I think means "The mountain is angry" (as in Vesuvius)- I'll believe anything you say on the bumble front. I nearly didn't believe they were two seperate bees until you cunningly showed a picture with them both .... clever .... very clever ....

Anyway. I think this comment is in danger of becoming too long .... becoming?? .... so I'll just say this .... was Kiefer Sutherland hanging around your oven recently? At around midnight, by any chance??